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Plodding through Terry Pratchets Guards Guards and absolutely loving it. Brilliantly witty writing and clever parody of numerous fantasy tropes. I have a feeling ill be coming back to discworld after this...

Comrade, Listen! The Glorious Commonwealth's first Airship has been compromised! Who is the saboteur? Who can be saved? Uncover what the passengers are hiding and write the grisly conclusion of its final hours in an open-ended, player-driven adventure. Dziekujemy! -- Karaski: What Goes Up...

Just been reading Fraud by Peter Davey. I loved his last book so was interested to read this one. It was pretty great. All about a young writer trying to make a name for himself with a hot scoop on a world famous celebrity, who got famous with a book she may not have actually written. It's pretty heartbreaking at times, pretty witty at others and a really interesting story.

Last edited by Stense; 03-02-2013 at 10:22 PM.
Reason: Author name typo

Read through all five of Mike Carey's Felix Castor books over the past few weeks. Read the first on on a whim, fell in love with the series.

Its urban fantasy in the same vein as The Dresden Files. Modern-day city with a plucky underdog protagonist who has to punch well out of his weight class to avert the apocalypse and what not. Overall, I would put the best books in the series (2 and 4) as on par with the "average' Dresden Files book.

The first book starts off a bit weak (Carey hadn't yet fully gotten a feel for what he wanted to do with the supporting cast), but ends up being a "quite enjoyable" read by the end. Its really the second book that kicks it into high gear and makes me feel bad about comparing all urban fantasy to Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files (but not bad enough to stop :p).

One thing I really loved about the first (and fourth) book was that it was a mystery where everything you need to solve the case is put in front of you, and you either figure it out or have a moment of "Holy crap, that makes sense, how did I miss it". Similar to how the BBC have handled their recent Sherlock series. Obviously there is a bit of the magical/paranormal, but the basic principles are laid down pretty quick so you don't have to think back "Okay, now that the protagonist felt like explaining how fairy magic works, does that change anything?". This is in contrast to most of the more mystery-ish books in the genre (even Jim Butcher's almighty Dresden, the gold standard) where you have to either keep reanalyzing stuff after every bout of exposition or hope you had the same assumptions on magic as the author.

The last book in the series definitely ended on a weak note, but that is mostly in relation to book 4. Carey set the bar way too high with that one, making the actual climax of the series feel like wrapping up and falling action.

Steam: Gundato
PSN: Gundato
If you want me on either service, I suggest PMing me here first to let me know who you are.

I read Foundation by the ever-amazing Isaac Asimov the other day. Great book. Great style, as well - It reads as if it's a film from the 50s, 60s etc.

I read that as well some time ago. Had to smile every time he mentioned an everyday item. For example: An oven becomes an atomic oven (or nuclear oven? don't know about the english version). All the items existed in this future like today, just with an 'atomic' (or 'nuclear'?) in front of it. I guess when he wrote it, nuclear power was cool and that's what the future was going to be :D

I finished Der Weltensammler (in english: The Collector of Worlds) by Ilija Trojanow. It's about Richard Francis Burton (a real person) exploring India, the Arab world and unknown territories in Africa. And he does that by learning the language and culture of these countries and practically becoming one of them, in opposition to his fellow Englishmen who preferred to be ignorant at the time.

It's not a biography, however. And it was very good and interesting. Can't say anything about the english translation though.

I read Foundation by the ever-amazing Isaac Asimov the other day. Great book. Great style, as well - It reads as if it's a film from the 50s, 60s etc.

Ooooh I live the foundation series theyre probably my favorite scifi books. I love how the first book tackles so many socio economic issues when it comes to ruling and guiding a nation yet manages to do so via really engaging and compelling characters. Love the short story like nature with the time jumps to different periods.
I'm on the third book now so curious how it all pans out. Then there's the other books Asimov wrote later too

Comrade, Listen! The Glorious Commonwealth's first Airship has been compromised! Who is the saboteur? Who can be saved? Uncover what the passengers are hiding and write the grisly conclusion of its final hours in an open-ended, player-driven adventure. Dziekujemy! -- Karaski: What Goes Up...

Not long ago I finished Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia. Despite the generic name, it read like a rollicking, good action movie with fun elements of mythical creatures woven in. Some foul language and gore, but mostly with monsters getting blown apart. I enjoyed a couple of references to my church that made it seem that the author had some familiarity with the subject.

I actually had bought the omnibus edition of the first three books after reading some quite glowing reviews. Haven't started on the second one yet but I expect it to be good popcorn fiction, if that is such a thing. Apparently the descriptions of guns and weaponry mentioned in the books are feasible and accurate -- most of the conversation I could find about the series, outside of reviews, took place in online gun enthusiast forums.

I was meaning to buy a book by Haruki Murakami but I'm not sure which one to pick. The ones I know are Kafka on the Shore, Dance Dance Dance, Norwegian Wood (or I think so) and a few other which titles I forgot. Should I get a book by him or should I get Snuff by Pratchett instead?

I was meaning to buy a book by Haruki Murakami but I'm not sure which one to pick. The ones I know are Kafka on the Shore, Dance Dance Dance, Norwegian Wood (or I think so) and a few other which titles I forgot. Should I get a book by him or should I get Snuff by Pratchett instead?

Getting close to a third of the way through Metalion - The Slayer Mag Diaries and it's brill. I was always interested in knowing what was in Slayer because both that and the name of it's creator kept popping up as I was looking for more and more underground bands over the years (and reading Lords Of Chaos). It's the size of an encyclopaedia, you could serious kill someone if you threw it hard enough at their head or at least damage their brain. Seriously, it's bloody huge. I guess that makes it one of those essential reading things (not just the bit about throwing it at dudes).

I read Foundation by the ever-amazing Isaac Asimov the other day. Great book. Great style, as well - It reads as if it's a film from the 50s, 60s etc.

I'm reading Prelude to Foundation at the moment (I've forgotten which Foundation books I've read, it was probably over 20 years ago), and quite frankly, despite being written in the 80s and depicting events 20,000 years in the future, it appears more like an idealised 60s, someone, somewhere invent mobile phones and the internet FFS! Okay, I think I've just spoilt myself on modern authors and the pacing and style of classic authors seems so pedestrian.

Recently finished Richard Morgan's The Cold Commands sequal to The Steel Remains, and while I quite enjoyed it, I'm getting the feeling the main characters are a little too over-sexed and over-violent, leading to interesting bits being surrounded by blood and porn, but for me the set-up makes up for this.